Linux Lite 7.4

Linux Lite 7.4 Final is now available for download and installation. Linux Lite 7.4 is considered to be a minor release as it only contains, LTS updates, bug fixes, code and GUI changes.

If you're coming from Windows, you'll find this to be a solid, stable release that will help make your transition to a linux based operating system, user friendly. If you're coming from another linux based OS, you'll come to understand that this lightweight OS is the feature complete desktop you've been searching for. See below for What's New.


Read the full announcement here
COMMON SOFTWARE

Desktop Environment - XFCE 4.18

Kernel - 6.8.0-56(custom kernels are also available via our Repository for versions 3.13 - 6.14+)

Web Browser - Chrome 134.0

Email Client - Thunderbird 128.8.1

Office Suite - LibreOffice 25.2.1.2

Media Player - VLC 3.0.20

Image Editor - Gimp 2.10.36

System Backup and Restore - Timeshift 24.01

File Manager - Thunar 4.18.8

Ubuntu Base - 24.04.2

Linux Lite Series - 7.x

DESKTOP UI

Window Theme: Materia

Icon Theme: Papirus

Font: Roboto Regular

WHAT'S NEW

Updated to the latest stable version of LibreOffice.

Updated Icon set.

Latest stable versions of Chrome, Lite applications etc.

Bug fixes and enhancements.

House Sparrows, a Vanishing Species?

Posted on February 15, 2011

House Sparrows, a Vanishing Species?

I had been looking for an answer for why our house sparrows have become a vanishing species?

I have not found any luck.

Our ornithologists and bird watchers have not done enough.

I put the question to myself and these are the emerging facts.

1. This coincided with the disappearance of the migrant bird species which I counted over 30 in 1984.

2. Last 5 years I have not seen more than five species coming to our neighbourhood.

3. The last species who lost the habitat due to development was a type of robin who makes nests in the paddy fields. I call them the paddy birds and dearly as the last of the singing Bohemians. Once they lost the paddy field they started nesting on grass and when the remaining little waste land (now there is a three story building there) was encroached upon they disappeared. Till then I used to see at least 4 to 6 of the young ones yearly.

4. The house sparrows are more close to human habitat but they disappeared some 20 years ago.

Why?

That was my question.

I have seen one or two sparrows in Kandy City Center occasionally but none in the suburbs.

1. Unusual predator

2. Unusual predator of the eggs

3. Unusual destruction of their nests

4. Poison in our food and grains

I come to the last conclusion.

The amount of poison we eat every day in our food is sufficient to kill all the house sparrows over the last 30 years.

By way of aggro-economics we are killing our birds.
The story is true for pigeons, too.

The poisons are deposited in their ovaries and eggs.

Biophysics-02 and Biodiversity

Posted on October 24, 2010

Biophysics-02 and Biodiversity

Biological live agents has the capacity to duplicate themselves either by sexual or asexual means. In mathematical sense this is easy to comprehend but what goes behind the scene is very complex.

Man is very good at converting and producing by products from animal material and it is emerging there are over 184 pig products in the market.

This is same for cow too but cell division and its organization into about 600 to 1000 cell derivatives has taken billions of years of duplications and organizations. That is where the biophysics operate and man can never duplicate that sequence however much he tries.

Biophysics unlike simple physics and chemistry works at a rigid thermal atmosphere since bio-molecules especially proteins cannot stand high temperature.

High temperature and curing that include tanning make these biological materials commercially useful. Gelatin and fibrin are two of them used for making texture of food attractive but have no food value at all.

This short article highlight some of the mathematical concepts involved in biophysics and not their modifications in the commercial world.

It is binary mathematics of duplication somewhat similar to binary computer mathematics. 

How 256 characters and 0 and 1 are used for modules in computing, in the biological world about 2500 to 25.000 large biological molecules (not-nanoparticles) give the diversity around biological structure.

It is said that genetic code doubles itself every 3 to 5 million year cycles and this event why it happens we do not know but heralds new species on this planet.

For example the change that occurred from chimpanzee to human occurred when this cycle of duplication occurred last time on this planet.

In about 65 million years ago we so dinosaurs disappeared but the cockroaches who remained would have told us the story in detail if they had computerized brains in their possession.

But we have to surmise what went on and what went wrong then.

This is written in the same conceptual framework what we know is little what we do not is enormous.

What will become of this planet we do not know in way the biodiversity is changing in every nick and corner of this planet from deep sea to mount Everest.

Coming back to my mathematics 2 is the base.

The other base is 10 the log base and log normal.

In biology there is a tendency for log normal behaviour in time scale.

Put these figures together I derive 20..

The figure 20 is my figure for looking at the available species and make some deductions.

For example take a plant (an animal) from a site (area should be defined) and see whether there are 20 similar pants not interbreeding (definition of species difference) at the same site.

If we see a site with that number it is a biological hot-spot.

I wonder whether we have any to fit this description or anybody has done this calculation before. (we can argue about the veracity of the number 20 till the cows come home with a pipe and arm chair critics) in an observational manner but the point I am arriving at is that we look at a whole country and say (for example Ceylon) we are bio-rich is a total misconception.

I have arrive at a figure by simple observation of my neighbourhood for every three plants I see in my garden we have lost another 17 in the last 100 years or so.

It is said that the anaconda (Anaconda is a Ceylonese name) type of snake had been sited in Ceylon by foreign invaders about 200 years ago.

Where are they now?

The corollary to my argument is that if we can collect 20 similar species in an environment that environment is conducive for biodiversity.

I can give two examples of my childhood.

We could have identified at least 10 varieties of tortoises and 100 varieties of butterflies less than 50 years ago.

Bizarre use of insecticides in agriculture and DDT in particular (thanks to WHO – Sinhalen hoo) by ill conceived pundits in the health sector has done irrevocable damage to our biodiversity.

Final nail will come when the two Coal Power plants are operational.

Problem in my argument is that there are no true scientist left in this country to take my argument forward with observational data in spite of 40 years of free education in mother tongue.

We have not produced a single biological scientist that we can say were nominated for Nobel Prize in 40 years of free education,.leave alone winning it.

By producing private universities this cannot be remedied since they are profit oriented.

We lack Think Tanks in power and also in opposition..

Think tanks are there when they are in opposition!

We have thin tanks how to get to power and remain there for ever.

We need to produce outstanding thinkers.

We are sadly lacking in that endeavour.!

Biophysics

 Posted on September 24, 2010

Biophysics

This is another word I would like to add to English, if it is not there already in existence, this time in Scientific World.

We had an Engineering Exhibition in the University, I do not know what was being exhibited there but what my gut feeling says is that they are all big events for public consumption and certainly not miniature exhibits of biological nature.
I am pretty sure they did not talk about biophysics and nano-technology.

I have been against the Coal Power Project form its inception.

I have many reasons including Acid Rain and I have stated that Coal Marketing Board will be as bad as the Paddy Marketing Board of yesteryear and its corruption scale will have to be estimated in time to come.
 
Suffice is to say that most of the Coal would wind up in undesirable places and the scale of corruption will be covered by black soot.
How black soot will effect our children’s chest physiology and sporting outcomes are a different kettle of fish.
I have voiced these concerns with scientific data but they are under the carpet of power politics now.

One pertinent question our energy planners not addressed is that these coal power plants are operational 24 hours a day and the interruption of nocturnal terrestrial cooling effect that is necessary for air circulation and water condensation and the night rain pattern that we used enjoy that invariably purified the air of soot, dirt and chemicals is going to be disturbed due to constantly warm air that is not circulating.
The effect of this is going to be phenomenal.

As long as the rain is there even infrequently and with disturbed patterns then there is some reclamation.
But think of the scenario for some reason or the other if the rain fails for a period of two years with drought.
Then we have to be using more and more coal power to generate power, the conditions are conducive for catastrophic events. 

The nocturnal cooling effect is negated for a prolonged period of time and the pollution it created is of clinical scale.
We see this pattern in Kandy even without the warming effect discussed above and that is why Kandy is the most polluted city of the country when rain fails the nocturnal cooling draft fails and the pollutants remain for considerable length of time in the lower atmosphere.
We have now cleared our rain forest to less (33% is the critical value) than the sustainable level for natural rain and ecological balance.
We can see the effect of acid rain in less than 5 years after a period of prolonged drought.

I will talk a little about the miniature life of biological nature that can mop up some of the CO2 created by the mega projects like Coal Power Plants.
But more than thousands of other chemicals that are emitted which cannot be made safe and some of them causing cancer (are the projects for future studies) in the air not diluted due to stagnation and failing air circulation.

These are mega events and banning cigarettes has no ameliorating effects once these chemicals are in air and in circulation and when we have to breath them 24 hours a day.

The algae I had been interested in are tiny but common in nature and their contribution can be very significant if properly harnessed but the experiments done on them are very few an far between.
I gather in Germany they are working on them to mop up CO2 emitted by coal power units.

What ever big or small engineering feats it may be whether it is motor car or a rocket no engineering feat can bring about more than 33% efficiency or throughput.
 
In biological system this is scaled down to less than 3 to 4% and even though the process is very slow by the shear numbers of biological beings and the multiplying cells the process of conversion is made good with eventually.

Problem with engineering feats is that they are not cost effective or efficient.
The rate of conversion is fast and the rate of production of pollutants and poisons are also fast.

This is what I used to argue with my fellow engineering students at the campus many moons ago and also asked why they used heavy metal to built cars (that also not stainless steel) that is subjected to resistance or impedance or inertia of motion and why not aluminum like in an aircraft.
 
They will give some answers and I will give counter arguments while playing bridge (which I learnt from them) and this goes on with new themes added.
Years went by we parted and departed from ivory towers we built and went into real world and domestics. It is sad now I cannot find somebody to talk ten words in analytical English on a scientific topic or discussion.

Even, people like Prof. Carlo Fonseka talking and taking partisan in bizarre politics in their twilight years sadden me most.
I am not saying that he not entitled to it. With his reputation if he makes a mistake his ardent followers are left astray.

What has happened to their scientific inquiry and what has happened to their inbuilt instincts.

We were fed a good and healthy dose of inquiry and free discussion then and now there is paucity of inquiry and query, question or rationalistic views about world around us living and inanimate (Physics).
I dearly remember Prof. Osmond Jayaratne and his investigation into lightening.

There was Prof. Rnjith Ruberu with beautiful exposition of Botany and Biology.

I am not talking about Chintanaya Professors with mathematical talents.

I never talked about biophysics then since all medical stuff including biochemistry was boring for me.

Now that I am somewhat of an independent thinker my argument of biophysics start with a simple relationship (not Newton’s equal and opposite reaction).
This is where I have element of disagreement with Buddhist practices, too.

Why only animals are sacred?

Why not other living things, the plants that all animals depend directly and indirectly?
To me plants are sacred too.

Without plant life the world cannot exist.

This is where my thinking is at variance with even Buddhist tenets.

Why there is only a law for animals?

Is it only animals with brains or nervous system that is important to Buddhists?

I have not found a answer for this in Buddhist scriptures.

So I am entitled to my own analysis in a biological sense.

So my simple theoretical aspect of biological relationships especially the biophysics is that there is infinite relationship one to one and one to many in every biological cell or biological system.
There is no distinction of pant life and animal life whatever the form it may be.

They are all life forms in a constant web of actions and reactions.

As far as we know they can be seen with definite evidence only on this planet.

This planet is the only planet we know of and I am not extrapolating to any other heavenly objects with life or without life in this universe.
Ever since the life began in this planet this biological or biophysical relationship continuously existed without a break.

There is either positive or negative relationship but this relationship is such that it was never to destroy or eliminate one or the other.
 
Continuity of life existed uninterrupted in spite of major physical catastrophes.
 
If this would not have being the case various new forms of life would not have emerged in evolution.
There was competition but never extermination by living thing by living things.

That is my bona fide or the compelling argument.

All life forms are important including mosquitoes whether they carry infectious agents or not.
We cannot argue that world should be without insects including mosquitoes.

There my argument and tent converge with Buddhism.

All life forms be happy!

It is the physical catastrophes that eliminated species lock stock and barrel but never simple biological competition.

This theoretical aspect had very interesting convergence when I saw my fish dying in the open including the Guppies.
First I thought it was the algal bloom and the lack of oxygen.

It is the very simple and straight forward plausible explanation I can give.

But when this happened again and when I checked with the internal digital temperature it was not strange coincidence that the temperature was above 95 degrees Fahrenheit.
 
It was the global warming (atmospheric temperature) that killed the fishes, other factors were contributory.
 
Interestingly high atmospheric temperature encourages mosquito breeding.
 
Every ton of coal (when it is burnt 24 hours a day) we burn will increase the number of mosquitoes by billions!
Single physical change, the temperature alone can kill animals.

Humans can die of heat stroke and why not fish.

There is a protein called heat shock protein even in bacteria and our cells also have it in a different form and all animals too have this protein to overcome stress.  
Heat is a stress.

That system can easily be damaged.

Yes most of the fish who are kept indoors especially the mollies cannot live above 86 degrees.
 
It was only algal bloom and lack oxygen alone the some fish could come up and breath at the surface or produce young ones before dying but this did not happen.
 
The biological relationships I propose in theory could not keep pace with the adverse temperature which is partly man made.
There was no time for evolutionary adaptation.

The other relationship is human population expansion.

I believe we have come to the optimum population of 6 billions.

The earth cannot sustain 9 billions.

This extra 3 billion will upset the balance of biophysical relationship that come into equilibrium in the microscopic levels.
The mega level is man and his megalomaniac beahviour.

Earth cannot sustain its biophysical relationships with the rate at human population is expanding and consuming all the limited resources.
Biophysical barrier will break down soon.

Then calamities after calamities would occur.

Gloom, bloom and doom unless we arrest the population expansion and the rate of use of easily available energy resources.

First we have to arrest the population growth.

Second we have to have a food security.

Third we have to prevent the made made causes of global warming.

Even in this country the priority is on energy and its use and its expansion and not conservation.

We got our priorities wrong.

We will loose all the biodiversity and elephants in no time.

We do not have neither the master plan nor the vision.

We do not have philosophers.

We do not have scientist of international caliber.

We only have politicians of various shades and colours but without a distinction.

23rd September (Poya)

4MLinux-2.3-Small Is beautiful with UnetBootIn and Making Mandriva Flashdrive

Posted on September 3, 2011

4MLinux-2.3 to 48-Small Is beautiful with UnetBootIn and Making Mandriva Flashdrive

 4MLinux is a CD/DVD Image and CANNOT be booted from a USB, just like Gparted and Tails.

I wanted to try UnetBootIn on Live mode but could not.

UnetBootIn was the utility that I used to use to write an Iso Image to a USB stick in the good old days.

4MLinux is a miniature Linux distribution focusing on four capabilities: maintenance (by using it as a system rescue live CD), multimedia (for example, for playing video DVDs), miniserver (using the inetd daemon), and mystery (meaning small Linux games).

Features

 Maintenance (system rescue Live CD)

 Multimedia (e.g., playing video DVDs)

 Miniserver (using the inetd daemon)

 Mystery (console games)

As mentioned already Mandriva is good idea badly implemented and slow to boot.
 

One can remember Mandriva had Globe Trotter and Live Pendrives.
 

Now the new Mandriva is bulky and difficult to work with just for for fun I decided to make Mandriva Flashdrive (I do not know how long I will keep it before erasing the image).

Steps are as follows.

1. Download 4MLinux all in one.
 

2. Download Mandriva image.
 

3. Boot 4MLinux
 

4. Go to maintenance and click UnetBootIn
 

5. Plug in a Flash drive (I tried 8 GB Flashdrive) since the image is heavy. 

One has to format it with FAT beforehand.
I had 6.5GB for Mandriva and another 1.5 GB as a reserve partition.
 

6. Give the path to your image (need not be Mandriva or any Image you have downloaded).
Root—> Media—-> Disk—–> Image
 

7. Click OK and in about 5 minutes you have Mandriva in a Flash.

8. Now to reveal how bad the new Mandriva boots (if you have 1 GB RAM like me), go and make a cup of Tea/Coffee.
 

I finish my tea (boiling the water to brewing and drinking it before Mandriva booted and fire-up the Firefox).
 

It did not go to Mandriva site as it used to do.

This is why I am happy that I left Mandriva long time before their split and use 4MLinux for my work on Live sessions and say “Small is beautiful” and promote Unity Linux and (Core Linux on top of one can built one's own packages) its derivative of HUMANity Musician Edition (currently downloading, the last 100 or so MB).
 

Unity is one of the earliest Core Live CDs before PCLinux stormed the community with Big Daddy (only in archives now).

It broke away from Mandrake and formed Unity and there are at least 8 derivatives and one of which is TinyMe.

One does not need to be FAT to be productive when the cloud is promoting thin clients.
4MLinux even though tiny and only 60 odd MB, it can be destructive if you use it’s partition utility without due care.

It only detect the first hard disk and if you select sda1 instead of sdc or /d or /e by accident your will boot Mandriva Live instead of your prized distribution (gone as you press OK in the dialogue box) in the first hard disk.
 

Please take care and the UnetBootIn graphic mode fonts are very tiny for an old folk like me.

But I did not do any mistakes, simply because I check my actions especially typos now before clicking OK in any command line operation. 

 

I do not use Command Line now.

Cloud Computing and what one can expect in year 2012?

Posted on November 21, 2011

Cloud Computing and what one can expect in year 2012?
 
It is too early to predict but we are gearing up to lot of innovations.
These innovations come not because we have become groovy but because of necessity.
Already some writers who have seen the “Sea Change” making analogy to Volkswagen Era.
It is Hitlers creation but it outlasted him by a century.
 

The people car, the Volkswagen (People’s Wagon) he built to take advantage of harsh conditions in the Africa where water for cooling was not available  

Beetle was even built in  Uganda in latter part of the last century.
 

Now the analogy is different. 

Fossil fuel is becoming exhausted with www in vogue and the whole world connected one need not travel far to get new technology and the freedom for innovation open for everybody.
 

In comes Amazon Kindle and its Silk Browser to go with the Cloud Computers we are in for a sea change.

Amazon will lead at a time whole western economy is collapsing due to “greed based economy” that was developed by greedy high flying CEOs.
 

One need not fly one need is a fast Internet and only a Silk browser to be connected and high flyers are wasting money of their own and cloud will actually make many people redundant in the IT  industry employed by corporate clients.
 

There is centralization and decentralization going in hand in hand.
When there is economic crisis redundancy will not be tolerated and machine will take over.

In this case the computer.
 

In another 20 years it is predicted the “cloud cluster computers” will surpass human intelligence and CEOs become redundant.
 

Small become beautiful and big and bigger (IBM mentality) mentality will be replaced by “Ant Philosophy”.
 

Each small unit of computer power (Linux Clustering replaced Super Computers and even NASA used it when the money supply went down) will add and make “a cloud of computers” super powerful that few companies (they can thing big though) will inherit this phenomenon. 

Companies who ignore this will have to buy the resources or become subservient.
I will list the order of things in small to big with or without the company involved.
 

1. Silk Browser and Amazon
 

2. Kindle Fire
 

3. Amazon Cloud Service.
Mind Amazon has only silk Browser and the Linux Utility to run the cloud systems and have no OS.
 

4. Eye OS and any free software browser from Dillo to Midori to Gecko go with it and the Apache.
It is available at SourceForge free.
 

At eyeOS, we believe in free software as a way to share new technologies and make a contribution to the community, to the explorers who have great ideas but lack the resources to build upon them.
Open Source runs in our blood. 

It is our story and our legacy. eyeOS was born as an Open Source Project 6 years ago and since then it has thrived with a growing worldwide community of 16,000 active members, 70 minor and major releases over time, chapters in more than 60 countries and downloads that have recently passed the 1 million mark.
 

5. Suse and its Cloud Service

One can own a Cloud with Suse.
OpenSUSE comes with customized Eucalyptus, OpenNebula and OpenStack. 

It also supports ownCloud 2.
This is a do-it-yourself Web-based storage cloud application. 

OpenSUSE claims that “ownCloud is different from solutions like Google Docs, Dropbox or Ubuntu One in that it lets you own the data.
 

6. Not to forget Ubuntu ONE comes next.
 

7. Google with own OS will be the next with little community support but corporate mentality unless it decides to make amends and forge with open software.
 

8. Even though small Puppy Linux derivative Slako will be there to take us to the post.
 

9. Then the other players like Dropbox will take their due place.
 

10. Number 10 is any combinations above which include Meebo, JoliClouud and CloudSUB.

There will be 5 tier service protocol that will emerge.
 

1. Mini Browser like Silk Browser.
 

2. Thin Clients with lot of O.E.M guys having to port cloud services by default without an operating system bias. 

They have to produce Thin Client Systems with or without proprietary operating systems.
 

3. Cloud Service with Clusters of Clouds in the backyard (even in my own backyard if an N.G.O will provide me the resources).
 

4. Mobiles (Meego, Meebo and Mobilin derivatives to link with cloud.
 

5. Then the all important Tablets Galore from Kindle Fire, Barnes Noble to all that come from China (China has not done anything in the line of Linux but it will flood the market first the mobile and then the Tablets).
 

In this 5 tier system where does the Desktop stands?
 

It is nowhere and most of them in the attic or porting eyeOS with Apache and Midori and become a server instead of a stand alone desktop.
 

Desktop era is numbered and even laptop is not immune unless, they reduce the price and add some battery power and docking mechanisms to go with it.
 

Instead of laptops S.S.D type of Microchip will storm the market instead of Flash Drives probably with James Bond type Audio-Video capabilities.
 

I may be dead by then.

Posted on November 20, 2011

Cloud Computing and Kids With Cancer

When it comes to computing power guys and girls in the medical field use lot of computing power but they rarely understand the logic behind computer power but they want reliable logistic to back up their failing clinical acumen.

MRI is a good example where the human eye fails to beat the computer eye of imaging.
 

When it comes to cancer early detection is mandatory and we are yet to develop cellular level tagging mechanisms to detect early cancer. 

 

It is possible but with genome project well in advance scope for personalized treatment for cancer is breaking news.
 

Following is a statement regarding a cancer that come early in life and amenable to treatment probably if diagnosed early with genomic tagging mechanism to evaluate the effect of treatment.
 

How can the cloud computing help?

 
If all the current data available is put to a “Cloud Cluster” and then this information can be shared with the rest of the world. 

Computer resources are centralized but the actual clinical data are shared.
Instead of one institute putting their eggs (expenses) in one basket we are going to have eggs planted all over the planet and share the cost of computing.
 

Prototypes are emerging and it is a very good thing in medical filed.
 

Already we have an enormous amount of information in the Medical Library Systems an often this information is redundant if not put into good use.

It is time WHO wakes up and see the potential and develop it.
 

It has to be integrated with the curricula of medical training programs.
Below is an attempt to integrate data into a Cloud Cluster.
 

I hope this experiment generate impetus for far bigger projects.
“It’s easier to develop treatments for adult patients because there is typically a large sample of people to study and there’s a wider variety of FDA-approved drugs and dosages to choose from, Jeffrey Trent, president and research director of the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), said at Thursday’s press conference. TGen will operate the cluster at its facility in Phoenix”.

Ubuntu One, Cloud Space and not so Cloud Friendly Linux distributions

 Posted on November 15, 2011

Ubuntu One, Cloud Space and not so Cloud Friendly Linux distributions

I have a book for you on Cloud Computing at Amazon and Kindle for this Christmas.
It has a lot of tit bits for you.

In my writing I have not been fair to most of the Linux distributions, since all of them except Ubuntu has teething problems with Cloud readiness.
 

Even Puppy did not have a component and just recently SLACKO (First Slackware Puppy derivative from Wolfe Base), is getting into Cloud Computing.
 

I have already stated elsewhere what cloud utilities one can use.
 

Here is to thrash rather give a kick on the butt to all the guys who are sleeping and not come to term with Cloud Computing.
 

One has to wake up from slumber and at least go with Ubuntu One for the time being and provide this Linux Service to all Linux distributions.
 

Mind you Ubuntu was providing this service from 2009.
 

There is CloudUSB and JoliCloud and EyeOS and nothing else.
 

There was enough time for others to follow suit

It is not the job of Ubuntu because Ubuntu is doing a massive face lift operation with all plastic surgeons fully occupied with Unity.
 

Instead of criticizing Ubuntu One should pull up the socks and ask politely and get the code and work the required Tool-kits into the Library  each and every distribution.
 

Like what we did with UnetBootIn we should boot-strap cloud utility actually at the boot time and not after the installation.
 

PCLinux is not Cloud Ready.
 

This is what everybody should work on together before recessing to Christmas Holidays.
Year 2012 won’t be the End of the World but it is the year of Cloud Computing in full gear.
Don’t grumble that Ubuntu is in the lead again come December, 2012.
Lot of catch to do by one year. that is not good for the newbies trying Linux.

Ubuntu One Free is a Winner, Takes it All

 Posted on October 13, 2011

Ubuntu One Free is a Winner, Takes it All

Ubuntu One Free is a Winner, Takes it All
Canonical, the Ubuntu’s parent company is way ahead with cloud computing.
It has both the Client and the Server architecture.
It has integrated the Desktop and  IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service).
It has 5 GB huge storage.
It will soon allow the Windows and Apple users the client service.

That’s not all you can stream Music for less than 3 dollars a year price tag.
 

It’s Canonical’s biggest enterprise win to date, but that’s only a hint of what Canonical is up to with the cloud.

Only other hit in the market is Amazon’s Kindle on Fire.

Like Nero who played Music when Rome was on Fire one may be able to play Music on Kindle on Fire with the help of Ubuntu One Cloud.

What more one needs?
One does not need to be a Linux user to take this advantage.
Go and get registered with Ubuntu One.

It has already hit one million clients!

Posted on September 11, 2011

Cloud computing and what are we getting into?
 

This is a question everyone of us should ask ourselves and have an answer soon.
In fact. we are little bit late already.
Events unfolding in the business world tell the story in little bits.
 

Long time ago, IBM sold its PC Business to Lenvo in China.
 

Just recently HP has discontinued its tablet and the PC business almost abruptly citing financial reason but in fact it is following the footsteps of IBM.
 

Whether we like it or not Cloud Computing is going to become a way of life.
Little wonder even the Microsoft has entered the fray and it is supposed to be in the forefront. I just did a web survey and it is right in front and in fact well in front of IBM.

So what will happen to us the desktop users who got to change every time a new innovation takes us by surprise?
 

I was very enthusiastic and even would not listen to the Richard Stallman founder of the free software foundation (FOSS) who pressed the alarm button.
It is going to be a knock out punch for even free software and Linux, leave alone Microsoft.
Microsoft, Apple and Linux will take a backseat, if the trend of Cloud Computing take root in industry, if not in the home front.

Cloud computing is not a new idea but the lack of fast internet connection was the only hindrance to its development.
 

Amazon Web Service had been providing cloud service long before the present market hype.
The Success of Amazon is due their long term vision to its entry into this field
well in advance of other players.
 

Well then what is cloud computing?
1. In the beginning it was SaaS.
That is Software as a service just like water and electricity.
For water we need tap and the connection to supply.
For electricity we need a switch and the connection to the grid.
 

For IT one needs only a dumb terminal with a browser.
 

It may not look like the dumb terminal of mainframe computing.
 

The Window will be nicely decorated by the company log providing the service.
For example the Google.
Google has only the Chrome Browser and a graphic panel to enter the name and the password.
That’s all.
No software or packages as we call in Linux in the dumb or the thin client.
 

Then there is another term.
 

2. IaaS that is Infrastructure as a Service.
All the computers, printers and other hardware is also provided and maintained by the service provider.
Ones company may be in Ceylon but all his hardware may be in China or Russia or USA.
In true sense a global phenomenon.
For me this is alarming.

Few big companies in the giant world will run everything from a distance without any physical connection to the clients.
 

They can dominate or they can terminate services with whims and fancies of the creator of the monster cloud.
Then there is the third factor.
 

3. Virtualization of the operating system, Apple, Microsoft and Linux.
All the type of distributions I have already written will be used only if they are active and used by majority of users.
Linux it is only 1% and I now agree totally with Richrd Stallman.
It will hinder expansion of Linux even though 95% the cloud and the servers are run by Linux .
They hijack Linux at the server end without any input on the user end except a few browsers.
Ubuntu is the only Linux distribution which had seen this phenomenon.

CloudUSB is also Ubuntu derivative.
 

Jolicloud stand in between.
 

Interestingly enough sourceforge has eyeOS and it is testing its new release soon.
Now the Linux guys and girls have to work hard to prevent a few companies like Google take advantage of the scenario and kick start and leapfrog the cloud computing.

I will be firmly behind eyeOS and I want EyeNux to come up strongly in a business like manner and prevent few companies hijack all the Linux innovations lock stock and barrel.

Similarly all new Linux distribution should have a strategy for cloud clients as well as cloud service.
It is bit late already and I am going to give a bonus mark for all new distributions with their own (Midori for example) browsers and cloud utilities. 

For the time being they have to have some collaboration with Ubuntu One.
 

BroweserPup should take the lead in cloud computing.
 

There should be a Linux Consortium overseeing Cloud Clients and Services.
If not. all my efforts of promoting Linux 100 will be a colossal waste of time.
Hurry up guys and girls.
Think futuristic and not fatalistically and we can win and take the lead once again.

 Posted on August 8, 2011

Calibre and DRM (Digital Rights Management)

Testing Linux distribution plunge me into deep waters but very often I find some interesting stuff.
Calibre is an Open Source E-Book Management System I found already installed in Pinguy / Ping Eee.
If you don’t have it go to its website (there is a good demo) and download free. 

I believe it has a Microsoft version too.
 

It does the following.

1. Manages your E-book library

2. Converts the E-books to the device format for Reading

3. It synchronizes the device with your computer and exchange device to computer and vice versa

4. It is a E-book Viewer

5. Download e-books and news around the world

If you are good reader like me this cute little program is for you.

Now then what is D.R.M?

It is Digital Rights Management System by which publishers and device (O.E.M) developers prevent infringement of copyrights of the digitally available material.

There are four main e-book formats at present.

Mobipocket,

Topaz,

EPub and PDF.
 

The Amazon Kindle uses Mobipocket and Topaz and it also supports native PDF format e-books and native PDF files.
Other e-book readers mostly use e=Pub format e-books, but with differing D.R.M schemes.
Some call it Digital Restrictions Management and whatever the way one interprets it there is th law that prevent copying.

Not only e-books, audio, video and even TV shows are protected.
 

In time to come even in the developing world we might see tablets and E-readers instead of slates and slate pencils which I used when I was a kid.

Finding a Partner for a Lonely (Common) Cuckoo

Posted on May 15, 2011

Finding a Partner for a Lonely (Common) CuckoO

Not only, I observe bizarre flowering pattern of some plants including onions,        I am beginning to wonder whether the unusually warm and bizarre temperature pattern is affecting the birds.
 

April is the time of the year when common cuckoo sounds the arrival of new year.
 

One hears them singing in the early hours and late in the evening for the pairs to meet and retire to their resting places.

These birds are very secretive and even though one hears them it is very difficult to spot them.
 

They are either in tall tree or hidden behind the leaves.

Their singing is characteristic and musical and a treat to hear in the morning instead of Radio Ceylon’s opening music.
 

Every knows about the Koha (common cuckoo) and why one should worry about.

1. Bird population has drastically dropped and dropping rapidly including common village crows and cuckoos.
 

2. I can recognize a young one’s song from old one by their tone.
 

3. The are rared by crows and once chased out of the brood they have a characteristic nervy cry of a loner for few days.
 

4. Then they come to term with it and start a new life.
 

5. This new life is basically of finding a partner.
 

6. By May they are paired and the cry is more musical and vibrant.

7. Present context
I heard the nervy cry at 7AM in the morning.
Luckily I spotted the girly (not a guy-guy has feathers similar to sparrow hawk and is extremely secretive) feeding briefly on the mulberry tree grown to encourage butterflies. 

They love the caterpillars more than the berries.
Keep on crying for hours on end for the past few days.

8. Conclusion
She has not found partner and very unlikely till the next year.
This one is odd one out and would continue this lonely cry for another year.

I wish with the 2600 year celebrations of Buddhists and Pinkamas there would be one extra guy born (cuckoo) for this lonely cuckoo.

On reflection Buddha was a born environmentalist.
 

Unlike present day Buddhist monks who build big and palatial residences Buddha left the palace and retired to the jungle except during Wassana (rainy monsoon season).
He was born under a tree.
He attained enlightenment under a pipal tree.
He spent one week gazing at the Bodhi tree (as a gesture of gratitude).
 

When rain came down and struggling to realize the four Nobel Truths a giant cobra gave shelter to Buddha (this is something who kill snakes should note).

Flowers, birds and monkeys were his constant companion when meditating and concentrating to realize final goal.

In this Kandy City somebody put poison to kill monkeys.
 

Municipality is constantly uprooting the trees in the name of road clearance and development.
 

There aren’t many pipal trees left in the city.
 

There aren’t many tortoises (two in number) in the lake and the fish are sick and the monitors are devouring the dead.
 

There aren’t any sparrows or pigeons resting in the big upright buildings.
 

No bees or wasp that used to build their combs in tall buildings.
 

There are no flower beds that used to be in the center of the city.

Dogs are chased away in the name of rabies.

I am pretty sure the next Buddha to be who is Maithree (kindness probably to animals), assuming Gautama was kind to the mother nature by example and precept, would not choose this city of Kandy for his attainment of Nibbana.

Unless of course we protect our mother nature and trees for resting and nesting for lonely birds and monkeys.

There were more monkeys in this city than humans a century ago when Britishers were reigning and none of them were Buddhists.

My question is how can one attain Nibbana by visiting this sacred city?
 

In any case Gautama Buddha preferred not to.
Why?
That is also a question that come to my mind constantly.

Musix Linux

Posted on September 6, 2011

Musix Linux
This is one of the Linux distributions I could post a comment since I could not download (point to point) it but with some perseverance I managed to download it and it was worth the trouble.
It’s multi-language capability gets high points from me.
 

It has Debian and KDE utilities and I believe the desktop is light weight Openbox.
If you are musician or a graphic artist this is for you.

It has both 32 and 64 bits versions.

Only think I did not like was the clutter in the desktop but that can be excused for the utilities far outweigh the clutter it creates.
I hope in future version they provide a torrent version.
Please visit it’s home site and below is a few lines copied from is home page.
 

How Does It Works?
 

The system will boot from your CD/DVD drive, with no need to install anything on your hard disk.

Later, it can be installed.

It’s a 100% free multimedia operating system intended for music production, graphic design, audio and video edition, and all kind of tasks.

It contains an enormous collection of free (as in freedom) programs that can replace Windows.

Music-Dynebolic-2.5.2-65

 Posted on August 22, 2010

Music-Dynebolic-2.5.2-65

This is one of the best live CDs I have used.
It is the brain child of Denis the RoJo, whom I call the Bob Marley of Computer Music.

In a single CD he has put everything including, music, video and graphic and the internet.
 

Believe me even the blender is included.

This the gold standard of computer music and it gets over 1000 points easily in my scale.

It has used the KISS principle working.

Keep It Simple and Small.

New edition has not come after 2007 November.

Proof of the pudding, when one keeps it simple bug fixes are a rare commodity indeed!
Only gorillas carry heavy footage like words 2007.
This is one of the best live CDs Linux community has produced,
Please donate generously.

It is coming from Italy an unlikely event given the ground conditions and underground world looking for money.

The Football Team of Italy should take a note of this.

How much volunteers can do without fanfare and money.

Money corrupts everybody including Footballers.

RoJo is a Hero

ArtistX

Posted on October 3, 2010

ArtistX

Version 1 has come. It is fantastic and I have it in my K-torrent archives. I will seed it for at least 4 weeks.
Enjoy the fun while it is there.

It is 3.7 GB.
I have temporarily suspended testing Live CDs and thought of downloading a few heavy weight DVDs, just to satisfy some of the Linux fans who go for heavy weight fights without having fun with light weight guys.

After three days of downloading 2.4 GB of Gravity and Weight and tested this Ubuntu derivative that come from Italy.

It has fantastic collections of artistic utilities including Blender, Adobe Flash and Wine.

The collection was fantastic but there are a few proprietary packages that might have problem in the West.

I must tell you I enjoyed watching CNN News with Adobe.
Once I was trying to download Adobe for Suse and their was a hitch and gave it up.
This is about the third time I had problem with Flash.
Gnome should develop gFlash as soon as it is feasible lest I miss CNN News Flashes.

This is a good one for everybody.

There is something for everybody.

Thanks guys from Italy if you are inclined to read this in English.

Saving Space and Improving Efficiency of Browsing and Desktop Work

Saving Space and Improving Efficiency of Browsing and Desktop Work

This advice for Guys who use a Linux desktop.

Using a light weight desktop like Moksha of  Bodhi Linux or using Desktop with fantastic desktop effects like Elive may be the beginning.

For Office package one should remove the all the unnecessary language is the right way.

My research estimated that LibreOffice has 1GB of unnecessary language packages eve if you install your system with English, French or German as the User Preference.

One cannot blame LibreOffice for this.

Even for a Browser like Firefox has to accommodate lot of languages because they are global entities..

 

It is the user who has to configure his or her own needs, hard disk space is critical.

When One is troubled with Windows What one can do?

31-12-2011

When One is troubled with Windows What one can do?

It is strange that when one is troubled with Windows he or she goes into shell and blame oneself and not the operating system.

It is the opposite when one is troubled with Linux.

If he / she is a one who comes from the windows background without batting an eyelid he / she blames the distribution as if the whole hell has descended on him / her. 

It is often a minor glitch he or she has overlooked to configure or may be downloading a suitable alternative package or worse come file a bug report to which a ready solution is available within 6 weeks.

If that does not help one can swap the distribution and select one that suits and download it.

(I have two books already available, not digital yet selecting a distribution and also the utilities and packages, if this blog entry is not adequate enough).

One problem with this approach is if one is not using a torrent download (even this can be painful if there is one seeder who has gone into hibernation at night-simply switched off the computer) it can be time consuming. 

The download time can be awfully long and and painful (I have enough of stories often due to failure of the Telecom in Ceylon but now never or do not complain because I download several at a time and I know one will be finished by morning when I am in deep sleep and dreaming some bizarre episode of Cloud Computing like Star Wars of yesteryear).

But once one has a CD (ideally D.V.D with almost everything one needs in one pack) the live session is breezy and installation is cakewalk if not catwalk.

Only thing Linux guys forget is to keep it running 24 hours (cron jobs at midnight are vital to get rid of the junk files that collect is one switches off the computer regularly; leave seeds for others to access) at least once or twice a week.

If you are lazy use the sweeper or do it manually which I prefer now because of the frequent downloads.

Now come to Window guys/girls.

Steps.

1. Do not blame yourself.

2. It is often the operating system at fault.

3. It can be due to a corrupt file or a large macro sitting on the file and spying on you.

4. The pet devise to blame is the latest virus and I bet you will not have a solution this side of 6 months.

With so many holes in the operating system which Microsoft will never be able plug and then they will promise you the new version is very beautiful (but very slow to run unless you doubled up your RAM) and one should change and upgrade and works better (of course till the next ultra new version is ready for upgrade).

You are in this vicious cycle (V.C) and never get out of it.

If a guy of my age descends on me with a problem, I do not try to convert the guy to Linux fearing one gets a heart attack.

I ask a few questions.

If it it a pirated copy.

If the answer is yes, thrash the pirated copy and get a copyrighted version.

This is I am openly campaigning for the guy to remain with Microsoft.

Microsoft should be happy with my efforts now but I do not charge anything for this advice.

The poor guy has to pay through his nose anyway.

Do not forget the virus guard and that also will cost you some quids.

Get somebody to format and reinstall, I won't do that for you unless he or wishes to have a Linux distribution dual booted.

He has to spend a half a day with me with food and beverages ready and ample.

This is Christmas time anyway.

If the guy has not got the money, then the scenario changes.

I ask what are the things that he uses computer for, regularly?

Invariably, the answer is that he uses the email and nothing else to be in contact with the family and friends.

Then I give him a breezy Live CD and ask the guy to use it till he himself try to find a remedy for the malady or ultimately ditch Microsoft and ask me to install the new distribution in his computer.

The long course works well for Linux and I of course have to have two visits instead of one.

That of course keeps our friendship lasting and viable.

Who says Microsoft is bad.

It makes "my sphere of activity" to enlarge and expand.